India Steel Market Watch
October 28: Vedanta Ltd, on October 27, said its consolidated net profit during the second quarter of 2015-16 ending September 2015 declined by 41% to Rs 974 crore from Rs 1,640 crore recorded in the corresponding quarter of 2014-15 due to an overall weak trend in commodity prices that led to a decline in revenues.
The decline in net profit would have been higher but for partial offset by improvements in volumes and costs, supported by currency depreciation and district mineral foundation (DMF) write-back, it said.
The company said in a release that its revenues during the quarter declined by 16% to Rs 16,349 crore from Rs 19,448 crore last year. The decline in revenues was attributed to a fall in crude oil and metal prices, which was partially offset by higher volumes at Zinc India and rupee depreciation.
The company’s EBITDA in the quarter was down 35% to Rs 4,113 crore from Rs 6,336 crore in the same quarter of the previous fiscal.
During the quarter, the Government of India notified the contribution towards DMF at 30% of the royalty for existing mining leases, payable with effect from January 12, 2015.
Accordingly, the earlier excess provision of Rs 140 crore for DMF at Zinc India was reversed during the quarter, the release said.
The depreciation and amortisation came down by 17% to Rs 1,660 crore from Rs 2,003 crore last year, largely on account of lower amortisation post-impairment of goodwill during the quarter, primarily in the oil & gas segment.
This was also driven by lower depreciation on change in the useful life of metals and mining assets, effected at the end of the last financial year, the release said.